We want to be heard. We want to matter! Job is struggling with all of the suffering and loss in his life. He has made a case for his not deserving at least the severity of his afflictions. Now he wants to be sure that everything he is experiencing is not in vain. He wishes that everyone could read about his struggles later and know what he went through!
Don’t we sometimes feel as Job felt? We wish that what we are doing now will make a difference, that those who come after us will remember how we acted, and know that we had the best of intentions. Everyone just wants to be remembered as someone who did his/her best during the time they were able to live. But, really, we just want to be remembered.
Later in the reading we understand Job to be wishing for something and Someone who will change the outcome of his life. He states it so confidently: “I know that my Redeemer (or Vindicator) lives. By Redeemer he means Someone who will stand up before God and plead his case. Because of what the Redeemer has done, Job will reach his ultimate goal: he will see God!
George Frideric Handel saw the fulfillment of this passage in Jesus in his Messiah. When that interpretation is taken, we stand with Job and affirm that Jesus is our Redeemer, our Vindicator, the One who wins the victory over everything bad Job and we experience in the world. At a time like this isn’t this an affirmation that we all should make, “I know that my Redeemer lives…[and] I shall see God.”
“God, sent your Son into the world to redeem us so that our lives can matter. Help us to work for all lives of humans to matter. Amen.”
Pastor Roger Black
